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Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime by Ron Stallworth
sakisreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
3.0
✨ Thrifted ✨
I had heard about this movie but I hadn’t seen it and I was unaware it was based on Ron Stallworth’s real life 😳 Incredible!
I was quite disappointed by the end, but the fact that Stallworth could have infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan with any degree of success was astounding. Wow!
Content warnings included below. 3 out of 5 stars, thank you ✨
I had heard about this movie but I hadn’t seen it and I was unaware it was based on Ron Stallworth’s real life 😳 Incredible!
I was quite disappointed by the end, but the fact that Stallworth could have infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan with any degree of success was astounding. Wow!
Content warnings included below. 3 out of 5 stars, thank you ✨
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality, Racism, and Racial slurs
shmarvie's review against another edition
3.0
Ron Stallworth is an American hero, someone to look up to. Someone who dared to do something that hadn’t been done before. Let’s also not forget that he was the first African American to be hired in to the police academy in Colorado. He faced some prejudices within the precinct but most of what he would have to face was hate/disrespect from the community. He was able to hold his head high though and always maintain professionalism in the face of bigotry.
Ron sees an ad in the local paper from the chapter of the KKK recruiting new members and he decides to give them a call. He makes a mockery out of the entire organization while never once being detected showing them as the clowns they are. He successfully infiltrated the Klan and throughout his entire investigation not a single cross burning took place in Colorado Springs. This was the highlight of his investigation.
Now the writing is not that exciting and it doesn’t do the craziness of this story that much justice. It reads as a police report which doesn’t make for a very thrilling read. He also likes to restate facts he has already made, multiple times. While reading, knowing it had been made in to a movie, I thought that this might be more entertaining as a film. I was right that it did. BUT the movie has a drastically different narrative than the book. A lot is added to make the point of the hate against blacks and the lengths white supremacists go through to show their superiority. If you want to watch it, go for it, just know it doesn’t entirely lie true with what you read in the book- which is a memoir from the actual person stating actual events.
Interesting story. Lackluster execution.
Ron sees an ad in the local paper from the chapter of the KKK recruiting new members and he decides to give them a call. He makes a mockery out of the entire organization while never once being detected showing them as the clowns they are. He successfully infiltrated the Klan and throughout his entire investigation not a single cross burning took place in Colorado Springs. This was the highlight of his investigation.
Now the writing is not that exciting and it doesn’t do the craziness of this story that much justice. It reads as a police report which doesn’t make for a very thrilling read. He also likes to restate facts he has already made, multiple times. While reading, knowing it had been made in to a movie, I thought that this might be more entertaining as a film. I was right that it did. BUT the movie has a drastically different narrative than the book. A lot is added to make the point of the hate against blacks and the lengths white supremacists go through to show their superiority. If you want to watch it, go for it, just know it doesn’t entirely lie true with what you read in the book- which is a memoir from the actual person stating actual events.
Interesting story. Lackluster execution.
blaineduncan's review against another edition
3.0
Wow, does Ron Stallworth have a story. Lucky for readers, he tells exactly how it all came to be in Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime.
As the first African-American detective in the history of the Colorado Springs Police Department, Stallworth randomly answers a newspaper ad to join the Klu Klux Klan. He soon finds himself in year-long undercover investigation where he not only becomes a Klansman but also meets David Duke, infamous open leader of the Klan for many years, and becomes Duke's bodyguard for a day. Nope. This isn't fiction.
How he manages such feats I'll leave to the author himself. It's a plain piece of writing that documents in fairly linear fashion his infiltration of the hate group (and almost finds himself in another anti-government, survivalist organization that sounds a lot like Cliven Bundy's bunch of crazies). Stallworth doesn't bother for pizzaz or rhetorical flashes. Due to that, the narrative does lose heft and suspense it should hold naturally. The author also has a tendency for unneeded repetition. But despite these issues, the story alone is worth the short time it takes to consume it.
IIt's sad that Black Klansman is just as timely as it was when it was unfolding in the late 1970s.
One would think we'd come farther than that.
As the first African-American detective in the history of the Colorado Springs Police Department, Stallworth randomly answers a newspaper ad to join the Klu Klux Klan. He soon finds himself in year-long undercover investigation where he not only becomes a Klansman but also meets David Duke, infamous open leader of the Klan for many years, and becomes Duke's bodyguard for a day. Nope. This isn't fiction.
How he manages such feats I'll leave to the author himself. It's a plain piece of writing that documents in fairly linear fashion his infiltration of the hate group (and almost finds himself in another anti-government, survivalist organization that sounds a lot like Cliven Bundy's bunch of crazies). Stallworth doesn't bother for pizzaz or rhetorical flashes. Due to that, the narrative does lose heft and suspense it should hold naturally. The author also has a tendency for unneeded repetition. But despite these issues, the story alone is worth the short time it takes to consume it.
IIt's sad that Black Klansman is just as timely as it was when it was unfolding in the late 1970s.
One would think we'd come farther than that.
kermitcaroline's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
3.75
Very interesting recollection of an undercover investigation of the KKK. This book by itself maybe isn’t the most compelling or comprehensive book but in the context of a greater discussion of the history of white supremacy and modern day political upheaval I think it’s an important piece of the puzzle.
dubtronius15's review against another edition
lighthearted
fast-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism